Wednesday, March 6, 2019


World Book Day is a registered charity on a mission to give every child and young person a book of their own.  It’s also a celebration of authors, illustrators, books and (most importantly) it’s a celebration of reading.  In fact, it’s the biggest celebration of its kind, designated by UNESCO as a worldwide celebration of books and reading, and marked in over 100 countries all over the world.  This is the 22nd year there’s been a World Book Day, and on 7th March 2019, children of all ages will come together to appreciate reading.  Very loudly and very happily.  The main aim of World Book Day in the UK and Ireland is to encourage children to explore the pleasures of books and reading by providing them with the opportunity to have a book of their own.   https://www.worldbookday.com/about/

ANDY WARHOL QUOTES  In the future everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes.  Catalogue of an exhibition of his art in Stockholm, Sweden (1968)  This quotation has produced a common cliché about fame in pop-culture which is called "15 minutes of fame"; it has often been paraphrased or misquoted in various ways, including:  In the future, everybody will be world famous for 15 minutes.  In the future everyone will have their fifteen minutes of fame.  When asked about this quote, he would corrupt it intentionally, including:  In the future, fifteen people will be famous.  In fifteen minutes, everyone will be famous.  *  If you want to know all about Andy Warhol, just look at the surface; of my paintings and films and me, and there I am. There's nothing behind it . . . I see everything that way, the surface of things, a kind of mental Braille.  I just pass my hands over the surface of things. [1973]  In:  Warhol in his own words – Untitled Statements ( 1963 – 1987), selected by Neil Printz; as quoted in Andy Warhol, retrospective, Art and Bullfinch Press / Little Brown, 1989, pp. 457 – 467  *  I really don't care that much about "Beauties."  What I really like are Talkers.  To me, good talkers are beautiful because good talk is what I love.  The word itself shows why I like Talkers better than Beauties, why I tape more than I film.  It's not "talkies."  Talkers are doing something.  Beauties are being something.  Which isn't necessarily bad, it's just that I don't know what it is they're being.  It's more fun to be with people who are doing things.  https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Andy_Warhol

Andy Warhol (born Andrew Warhola; 1928-1987) was an American artist, director and producer who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art.  His works explore the relationship between artistic expression, celebrity culture, and advertising that flourished by the 1960s, and span a variety of media, including painting, silkscreening, photography, film, and sculpture.  Some of his best known works include the silkscreen paintings Campbell's Soup Cans (1962) and Marilyn Diptych (1962), the experimental film Chelsea Girls (1966), and the multimedia events known as the Exploding Plastic Inevitable (1966–67).  Warhol's will dictated that his entire estate—with the exception of a few modest legacies to family members—would go to create a foundation dedicated to the "advancement of the visual arts".  Warhol had so many possessions that it took Sotheby's nine days to auction his estate after his death; the auction grossed more than US$20 million.  In 1987, in accordance with Warhol's will, the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts began.  The foundation serves as the estate of Andy Warhol, but also has a mission "to foster innovative artistic expression and the creative process" and is "focused primarily on supporting work of a challenging and often experimental nature."  The Artists Rights Society is the U.S. copyright representative for the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts for all Warhol works with the exception of Warhol film stills.  

Look into the etymology of the word noon, and you will find that it comes from the Latin word for the number nine.  So why does our word for the time when both hands of the clock are on the twelve come from a word for nine?  Like the word noon itself, the original time-related meaning goes back to the Romans.  They counted the hours of the day from sunrise.  The “ninth hour” (nona hora) was about 3 p.m. our time.  The shift in the meaning of noon from “3 p.m.” to “12 noon” began in the 12th century when the prayers said at the “ninth hour” were set back to the “sixth hour.”  By the year 1140, the Old English word non had taken on the meaning of “midday” or “midday meal.”  Maeve Maddox 

Toledo-Lucas County Public Library  Authors!  March 17, 2019  #1 New York Times bestselling author Greg Iles returns with an electrifying tale of friendship, betrayal, and shattering secrets that threaten to destroy a small Mississippi town.  See location of speech and link to ticket purchase at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/authors-with-greg-iles-presented-by-the-library-legacy-foundation-tickets-54941938818

The Octosphericon and the Cretan Maze  The octosphericon is a generalization of C. J. Robert's sphericon:  the surface of the body obtained by rotating a square about one of its diagonals, slicing the resulting solid along a plane through the axis of rotation, rotating one of the halves 90o with respect to the other and reattaching the two.  The Cretan maze is just one of a family of mazes which share three properties:  (1)  A single path runs from the outside to the center.  (2)  The maze is organized on concentric levels; the path traverses each level exactly once.  (3)  The path changes direction each time it changes level.  Read more and see graphics at http://www.ams.org/publicoutreach/feature-column/fcarc-octo-cretan  See also Mazes and Labyrinths:  A General Account of their History and Development by W. H. Matthews at https://www.gutenberg.org/files/46238/46238-h/46238-h.htm

Wren Day, also known as Wren's DayDay of the Wren, or Hunt the Wren Day is celebrated on 26 December, St. Stephen's Day in a number of countries across Europe.  The tradition consists of "hunting" a fake wren and putting it on top of a decorated pole.  Then the crowds of mummers, or strawboys, celebrate the wren (also pronounced wran) by dressing up in masks, straw suits, and colourful motley clothing.  They form music bands and parade through towns and villages.  These crowds are sometimes called wrenboys.  In past times and into the 20th century, an actual bird was hunted by wrenboys on St. Stephen's Day.  The captured wren was tied to the wrenboy leader's staff or a net would be put on a pitchfork.  It would be sometimes kept alive, as the popular mummers' parade song states, "A penny or tuppence would do it no harm".  The song, of which there are many variations, asked for donations from the townspeople.  One variation sung in Edmondstown, County Dublin ran as such; "The wren the wren the king of all birds/ St Stephen's Day was caught in the furze/ Her clothes were all torn- her shoes were all worn/ Up with the kettle and down with the pan/ Give us a penny to bury the "wran"/ If you haven't a penny a halfpenny will do/ If you haven't a halfpenny/ God bless you!". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wren_Day

Arata Isozaki (born 23 July 1931) is a Japanese architect from Ōita.  He graduated from the University of Tokyo in 1954, and worked  under Kenzo Tange before establishing his own firm in 1963.  His early projects were influenced by European experiences with a style mixed between "New Brutalism" a "Metabolist Architecture" (Oita Medical Hall, 1959-1960), according to Reyner Banham.  His style continued to evolve with buildings such as the Fujimi Country Club (1973–74) and Kitakyushu Central Library (1973–74).  Later he developed a more modernistic style with buildings such as the Art Tower of Mito (1986–90) and Domus-Casa del Hombre (1991-1995) in Galicia, Spain.  In 2005, Arata Isozaki founded the Italian branch of his office, Arata Isozaki & Andrea Maffei Associates.  Two major projects from this office include:  the Allianz Tower CityLife office tower, a redevelopment project in the former trade fair area in Milan, and the new Town Library in Maranello, Italy.  Isozaki won the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 2019.  See graphics at  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arata_Isozaki

Word of the Day  periodic table  noun  (chemistry) A tabular chart of the chemical elements according to their atomic numbers so that elements with similar properties are in the same group (column).  On March 6, 1869, Russian chemist Dmitri Mendeleev presented the first periodic table of elements to the Russian Chemical Society.  In commemoration of this achievement, the United Nations General Assembly and UNESCO have proclaimed 2019 the International Year of the Periodic Table of Chemical Elements.  

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2057  March 6, 2019

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